'Crazy Rich Asians' is another triumph for big screen diversity

Amid the hoopla over all the debates of African-American representation on film and at the Oscars, the fact has often been overlooked that Asian people are perhaps the most under-represented group of people at the movies.

Besides the occasional kung fu vehicle, Asian actors are by-and-large used only for offensive comic relief, or ignored completely. The same thing happens with Asian voters despite studies showing that they're the largest growing bloc voters.

This is part of why (but only part) the new romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians is such a breath of fresh air.

It boasts a terrific cast featuring some newer faces and some familiar ones (Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong, and the breakout Awkwafina) and creates a bright new star in its heroine -- Constance Wu. And even though it's premise is fairly simple (and a little problematic if you don't like watching wealth fetishized -- and I don't) it's so assured, funny, moving and crowd-pleasing that it feels like a real return to form for a genre that has felt moribund for years.

I literally can't remember the last time a movie like this worked for me -- there's a lot to critique about it -- the lead guy is gorgeous but sort of bland and a particularly melodramatic subplot about an affair (which I assume is more fleshed out in the novel) feels very out of place -- but there's also so much to love: the humor, the look, the emotional pay-off, even the soundtrack -- this is mainstream movie-making at its finest. Even though Chinese culture is front-and-center, and integral to the plot (which for the uninitiated, revolves around a Chinese American's intense confrontation with the wealthy family of her serious boyfriend in Singapore) but the fact that every character in this film is Asian feels almost incidental.

Almost everyone is pretty fleshed out, and while this film is about very well-to-do, privileged people, the fact that it's not the same-old, super-white privileged people you're used to seeing in movies like this, makes it more enjoyable.

But all of this would feel gimmicky if the movie wasn't genuine and didn't connect emotionally and so much of the credit for that should go to Constance Wu, who gives a loose, relatable and totally convincing performance as the hero of this movie.

Here is a character who feels so grounded and who you really want to root for and she carries you through some of the movie's rougher patches on the strength of her winning personality.

And while the movie resolved itself pretty much the way movies like this are supposed to, there were enough little surprising turns and interesting shifts in tone to really keep me engaged and nearly shedding a tear from time to time.

Clearly, this is a community that deserves more exposure and more opportunities to demonstrate the diversity of personalities within it -- apparently a sequel to this breakout smash is already in the works, which is no surprise.

I just hope we'll get to see a predominately Asian film that isn't based on a best-selling book and which doesn't focus exclusively on people who are grotesquely wealthy. If I have a quibble with this movie is that almost everyone in it is exceptional -- brilliant, beautiful and in most cases -- 'crazy rich.' The movie doesn't really show ambiguity about the wealth, and in some cases it exalts it.

I'm not mad about it, but I do want to see the other side of life.

Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians have proven that broader audiences will flock to movies about high status minorities. The question remains if they will do the same for people of color of average means.